If you are looking for SharePoint training or just want to find out what this “SharePoint Thing” is, join us on March 2nd, 2013 in Austin Texas for SharePoint Saturday.

Over 40 hours of sessions are scheduled through the course of the day. Sessions include everything from PowerShell to Yammer, Governance to jQuery, intro sessions to deep dives, and much more. Presented by some of the best SharePoint people from across the country and around the globe, these people deliver some top rate content. There is free food, prizes AND SharePoint.

Did I mention this all day event is FREE?

Sorry for shouting.

Of course none of this would be possible without the fabulous support of all of the SharePoint Saturday Austin Sponsors. Make sure to stop by their booths to say thanks for such a great event. If you use their products/services tell them what you like about them or features you’d like to see. Remember, without the support of the sponsors we’d be hanging out in someone’s basement all huddled around a laptop eating whatever we brought and drinking tap water.

Special thanks to the Organizers for donating all of your already sparse free time to arranging the whole shebang. Check out their mug shots on the #SPSATX site and thank them the day of the event. Special shout out to Richard Calderon for great organization of information sent to the speakers. I think #SPSTC will be stealing/borrowing some of your style because it ROCKS!

I am having a hard time waiting until Friday to hop on the plane and head down to Austin.

SharePoint Branding 101: Concept to Production with D’arce Hess
When looking through the internet, it is easy to see a great website and think “I want that” or “How did they do that?” You go to your office and start digging in with concepts and a grand vision of what your company’s new site will look like when completed. While you have an idea of what your site will look like finished, there are many steps that will happen long before you see the finished product. In this session, we will go through the vital steps you should take starting with the creation of the initial wireframes and mock-ups on to the creation of page layouts and master pages. You will learn what design features to take into account when creating a Publishing Site versus a Non-Publishing site and the planning process for both.

OR

Getting It Right the first Time: Project management as the Key to Successful User Adoption with Leanne Bateman
User adoption is the most critical success factor in any SharePoint implementation. User adoption needs to be planned for from the beginning of the project, using a project management approach that integrates a strategy for user adoption best practices. These best practices ensure that the customer is involved in the process from start to finish, in a managed way, while allowing IT to focus on what they do best: design and deliver the technology. This session is for anyone involved in the planning of SharePoint projects.

10:40 pm

Content Types: Easier Than the Theory of Relativity with Tamara Bredemus ßThat’s me.
Everyone talks about them, but what the heck are they and how can I use them? We’ll start with some demos of how to use custom content types, then on to what the heck are content types anyway and we’ll end with another demo to build content types in the browser. Although the demos will be in SharePoint Server 2010, the steps to create content types are basically the same for 2007 & 2013.

Key Take Aways

When to use Content Types

How to plan Content Types

How to create Content Types

11:50 am – Lunch

Women in Technology (Panel Discussion)

1:00pm

The New Design Manager in 2013 – What Does It Mean for You? With Benjamin Niaulin
One of the biggest changes coming in SharePoint 2013 is the new Design Manager. This session will look at every added feature and the different approaches to use them. How do other Web Parts leverage this new feature? Get to know the impacts this will have on your current and future projects.

OR

Practical SharePoint Information Architecture with Ruven Gotz (Also recommend Ruven’s book Practical SharePoint 2010 Information Architecture)
This high-level overview touches on the tools and techniques that have made me a successful SharePoint Information Architect and Business Analyst.

SharePoint 2010 can be dangerous to your career: Expectations are often set very high, and not enough time is invested in understanding how those expectations can be met. Many SharePoint 2010 projects fail to meet their initial goals. Practical SharePoint Information Architecture arms you with proven tools that will help you to ensure that there is an agreement on the goals and scope, and how to then efficiently design your taxonomies. You will learn how to educate your users on what metadata is and why it is important so that you can build SharePoint 2010 solutions that exceed the expectations of your users.

You will see demonstrations of the tools that I use for planning and documenting the scope, navigational taxonomy, document taxonomy, metadata, page layouts and workflows for a successful SharePoint 2010 project. If you have been tasked with delivering an intranet for collaboration, document management or as a corporate portal, your only chance for success is to get all of these elements right, and then to make sure that you and your stakeholders are all on the same page.

2:10 pm (Serious problem with this time slot. I want to see all of the sessions at this time.)

Managed Metadata A to Z – Plan, Implement, Make it a Success! with Stacy Deere-Strole and Stephanie Donahue
Despite the hype, there is still a lot of confusion and misunderstanding surrounding metadata in SharePoint Server 2010. We cover Managed Metadata starting with the planning phase through implementation, and provide tips on how to make it successful in your organization. We will also discuss the direction of managed metadata in the near future.

Planning – where to start, who to talk to, planning guides

Creating Metadata/how-to

Explanation of the parts; Defining and comparing keywords, content types, tagging, and metadata and when to use each

Different ways to use Metadata in your site

How it drives search results

How metadata is utilized in User Profiles

Tips and Tricks

OR

What Governance Looks Like in the Cloud with Christian Buckley
This session reviews the changes coming to SharePoint due to Microsoft’s plans for the Cloud, helping attendees to better understand the impact of the Cloud to their business. We’ll discuss the rise of the hybrid SharePoint environment, and whether this model makes sense for your business, as well as how moving to the Cloud will impact your SharePoint planning, and your ability to manage SharePoint across the enterprise.

3:20 pm

CSS Tips and Tricks from the Trenches with Cathy Dew
When making SharePoint not look like SharePoint there are many challenges that you face. Many of these issues can be addressed through CSS alone. In this session we will cover a wide variety of issues that you can make an impact on a SharePoint UX design with simply CSS.